“At the onset of our formal budget planning in September, on behalf of the Senate I outlined a goal of unprecedented K-12 per student funding and broad-based tax relief for Florida’s families. Despite recent revenue projections and continued uncertainty in our national and global economies, this budget remains faithful to that goal. Our Senate budget dedicates the funding needed to increase per student funding to its highest level in the history of our state, and to date, our Senate committees have passed several options for our final tax cut package. I look forward to working with my colleagues, Governor Scott and Speaker Crisafulli in the coming weeks as we move towards a final tax cut package and pass a balanced budget that funds the critical needs of our state.

Statement from Chair Lee

“Public safety, our public education system, and protection of our environment are among the most important responsibilities of state government. This budget demonstrates our commitment to ensuring these key programmatic and structural functions are properly funded. Unlike Washington, we have to live within our means. We cannot just print or borrow money to pay for basic services. Just like Florida’s families, we have to be resilient in the face of an uncertain economy. To do that we are making strategic investments, while ensuring sure we have ample funding in our rainy day fund.”

Increases compared to the 2015-16 General Appropriations Act include: $651 million increase in K-12 public school funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP); $1.1 billion to fund the growth of the Medicaid program; $300 million in settlement funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill; and, over $200 million to fund Governor Scott’s request for an increase in economic development funds, among others.

“Next year we will have more than 35,000 new students in our schools, meaning for the second year in a row we have added the equivalent of another school district to our classroom rolls. Even when we take into account this significant enrollment increase, our education budget raises K-12 per student funding to the highest level in state history. We are bringing a new consolidated structure to budgeting for programs that provide after school care and mentoring services through a new competitive grant program that rewards performance and demands accountability. Additionally, our budget increases funding for an extra hour of reading instruction per day for the 300 lowest performing elementary schools and restores the guaranteed allocation for exceptional student education to pre-recession levels.

“In higher education, without raising tuition, we are increasing performance funding for both our state colleges and universities as well as preeminence funding for our top universities. We are also are increasing funding for career and professional education throughout the K-20 system and appropriating twenty million for rapid response training grants that will allow growing or relocating companies to match a skilled workforce with better jobs.”

Total Funding - Including Local Revenues: $31.5 billion ($19.4 billion state funds; $12.1 billion local) – Local revenues include required and discretionary local effort for public schools and tuition/fees for district workforce, colleges, and universities.

Early Learning Services

Total: $1.03 billion ($557.7 million GR; $477.1 million TF)

Voluntary Prekindergarten Program – $395.2 million GR; including additional $5.9 million for 2,223 students and BSA funding maintained

School Readiness Program – $565.5 million ($136.9 million GR; $428.6 million TF)

“Our budget provides a significant increase in funding to move more people with unique abilities from the APD waiting list to the home and community based care waiver, as well as additional staff positions to help individuals and their families with this transition. We also dedicated specific funding to help dependent individuals, who are over 30 years of age, and have been on the waiting list for more than 10 years, make the transition to the waiver during the upcoming fiscal year. We mitigate the continued loss of low income pool funding by redistributing funds within the DSH program and make significant investments into reimbursement rates for hospitals who serve Medicaid recipients and Floridians without health insurance. Our funding includes specific rate enhancements for hospitals that serve children in need of complex medical treatments.

“The budget funds a marketing campaign for the Bright Expectations online clearinghouse at the DOH. A component of the Senate’s cradle to career pathway to economic independence for people with unique abilities, the clearinghouse provides guidance to parents and families when their child is diagnosed with a developmental disability. We also increased funding for mental health, with specific increases in homeless mental health transition housing, forensic beds at our mental health facilities and for the expansion of our CAT and FIT Teams, among others.”

Health and Human Services Summary

Total Budget: $34,131.7 million ($9,472.4 million GR; $24,659.3 million TF); 31,510.5 FTE

Continue Construction of the Seventh State Veterans’ Nursing Home – $6.8 million TF

Maintenance and Repair for State Veterans’ Nursing Homes – $2 million TF

Florida is For Veterans Training Grants – $1.5 million GR

Replacement of Office and Medical Equipment in State Veteran Nursing Homes - $1.1 million TF

Statement from Senator Alan Hays (R-Umatilla), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government

“The Senate budget includes funding needed to implement key components of our Statewide Water and Natural Resources Policy, recently signed in to law by Governor Scott, as well as the second year appropriation for the Water and Land Conservation Amendment to our state constitution.

“We continue our commitment to responsible land acquisition with a fifty percent increase over the amount appropriated in the current year. We also dedicate significant funding to restore Florida’s unique natural resources, including fifty million to restore our springs, over eighty million towards Everglades restoration and nearly thirty million to restore and revitalize Florida’s beaches.”

Statement from Senator Jack Latvala (R-Clearwater), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development

“The majority of our portion of the budget invests in the transportation infrastructure needs of our growing state by appropriating over $9 billion in the Department of Transportation Work Program. This total includes building and maintenance of our highways as well as funding for public transit and rail development grants for our airports, seaports, and county transportation programs.

“We recognize and appreciate Governor Scott’s commitment to private sector job creation and his pro-active approach to economic development. For this reason, we have matched his request for $250 million to advance these important efforts. We look forward to continuing to work with Governor Scott and his team at Enterprise Florida on our shared commitment to reforming Florida’s economic development programs and our common goal of making Florida first in the nation in private sector job creation.

“This budget continues our commitment to housing for the developmentally disabled and homeless by fully allocating doc stamp revenues that are statutorily dedicated to state and local affordable housing programs. We also provide funding for the ongoing work of the Florida Defense Support Task Force as well as other defense infrastructure priorities.”

“Our budget includes a $138 million increase over the current base budget, the majority of which we utilized to enhance both our corrections and court systems. We appropriate significant funding increases to address the rising cost of inmate health care as well as funds to replace aging transport vehicles and to maintain and repair our existing prison infrastructure. The budget also includes funds to fill critical vacant positions in the Department of Corrections, which will reduce the number of corrections officers who must work overtime to ensure our prisons are adequately staffed.

“Within the court system, the budget provides funding to address deficits in the State Court’s Trust Fund as well as the Clerk of Courts, while also funding technology needs and other operational budget issues. We expanded funding for the PACE Center for Girls, CINS/FINS and Guardian ad Litem and provided funds for FDLE’s recommended plan to eliminate the backlog of untested sexual assault kits over a three year period.”